During my 5:30 AM drive to work this morning (while most of you casuals were tucked away in your warm beds, the grind waits for no one), I found myself in an internal fire fight. A four sided one at that. I have about four hours to fill after work before I stream Helldivers 2 with Big Beef and Buckshot, with E on the commentary (7:30 pm central @ twitch.tv/AuricPolaris [shameless plug 1]) and I couldn’t decide what I wanted to do. I was thinking of just heading home and doing nothing, just staring at the TV while I watch a bunch of assorted YouTube videos. Or perhaps ask Papa Auric to get some swings in at the driving range. Option 3 and 4 were writing two different short blogs, which, as you can see, is what I ended up picking.
Kind of. Instead of two separate blogs, I’m going to combine them in my first ever Double Barrel Blog. A choose your own Blogventure, if you will. These won’t be the longest blogs I write, but just two quick ones compiled into one post. Barrel 1 will be about the weekend we’re about to have and Barrel 2 will be about Helldivers, The ODST, and how I would get absolutely clapped in real life war.
First Barrel: Let’s Have a Weekend!
We are slated for a hell of a weekend! We’ve got Conferences Championship Weekend and Selection Sunday in the college basketball world. As a super casual viewer of NCCA Mens Basketball, I can assure you it’s going to be a good time and who doesn’t love watching fan bases we have no affiliation with hey Big Mad about missing the tournament? It’s a delicious appetizer to next week’s tip off of March Madness. Also we get to debate brackets for like 48 hours straight before the play in games begin which is always a good time. Make sure to play the tournament challenge with some buddies too!
On top of that, we have The Players Championship, which is the unofficial Fifth Major. While I’m pretty new to the golf game, but from what I’ve read Sunday should be fun way to cap off the weekend. I only started going to driving ranges and playing a hand full of rounds a couple years ago and it’s really forged a new appreciation in me while watching golf. I remembered as a kid coming out of my room to find my dad watching golf and eye rolling so hard I could count the wrinkles in my brain (17). But now I welcome it. It’s relaxing, and a tad frustrating, watching the guys do what they do on the course. Jealousy and appreciation rarely go hand in hand, but watching golf does just that, the latter heavily out weighing the former. Sadly, my number 1 guy, Brooks Koepka, withdrew with a strained knee but my (very close) number 2 is still on the hunt, 3 strokes back entering Friday, Max Homa. Let’s get it Maxy!
The NBA has a couple fun match ups to watch this weekend as well! Warriors vs Lakers, assuming every one plays, on Saturday should be great. We only have so many dances with Curry and ‘Bron left, so we might as well enjoy it while we can. I am not a fan of either, but greatness is greatness and we’re all going to miss them when they’re done, fans and haters. Over. Knicks and Kings is later that night featuring two young-ish teams that showed a lot of potential last years. I don’t really want the NBA until after the Super Bowl, but from what I can tell the Knicks have taken a step forwards and the Kings a step back. Doesn’t mean they don’t both have bright futures, though. Maybe an NBA finals preview 3 years out? Over. On Sunday we start with the Suns and the Bucks. No real opinion on this one but The Slim Reaper vs The Greek Freak sounds like a ‘60s monster movie so that’s fun. Also Pat Bev is must watch until his career is over. Pure DAWG. Over. Then the gameI’m most excited for it Nuggets vs Mavericks. Luka=must watch. Joker=must watch. You can do the math from there.
Outside of March Madness and Football season, seems like a pretty good time. So here’s to a fun, sports, filled weekend!
Second Barrel: Feet First into Hell
Halo 3: ODST is one of my favorite first person shooter campaigns of all time. Though, unlike most Hall games, I truly do believe it’s played best alone. Sneaking around the steers of New Mombasa as a The Rookie (FNG) of the ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Troopers) squad Alpha-Nine, trying to figure out what the hell happened and where the rest of your squad is after the drop goes wrong was enchanting to me. Though, you aren’t alone. The Covenant are patrolling everywhere. It’s the closest we’ve come to a horror survival game from the Halo series. For the uninitiated, in all other Halo FPS games you play as a Spartan II, III, or V, which are super soldiers that wear armor that literally weighs a ton and kicking alien ass. But in ODST you play as a regular human. Now gameplay wise, it doesn’t affect (effect? I never know which one to use tbh) much, but the concept is amazing to me.
It saddens me that they’ve yet to go back and explore another Halo game like this. Dropping into different planets on missions throughout the war was always a dream of mine. Throughout the FPS Halo games, from Reach to Infinite, it’s only about 8 years and the war is WAY longer than that. I doubt I’ll ever get that Halo galactic war game, BUT that’s okay. In comes Helldivers 2.
Helldivers 2 is exactly what I wanted in a Halo ODST war game. You and your team deploy on one of many worlds either fighting the giant bugs, the Terminids, or against the horror war machines, the Automatons. While I’ve only played about 2.5 hours, which was last night, I am super excited to jump back into the conflict and help Super Earth! You play as a infantry soldier, being dropped from orbit onto a planet with you and your squad. You complete a couple objectives, kill some bugs or bots and extract.
Players around the world complete missions on planets throughout the galaxy, slowly liberating planets and unlocking new things that the Devs add into the game. We just got a cool new Mech Suit! Though it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. There’s a guy who’s job it is to monitor and react to how they players are faring. The Game Master (I believe his name is Joel) literally can just be like “fuck this planet in particular” and send massive non-Super Earth reinforcements for us to lose planets. Dude wakes up in the middle of the night to add shit and fuck with players. What a kick ass job that must be.
Now. This game has also made me realize how absolutely fucked I would be in real war. I was panicking the entire time. Forgetting what key does what and every much a “what happens when I press this button”. But nothing proved my point more than the very first mission we did. There were some bugs approaching and I accidentally dove forward and died immediately. Not from any Terminid, but from a single bullet fired by Moon, that went straight through my skull, killing my diver instantly. The first shot fired in our first mission and it killed me. At one point Moon explained that anytime you rag doll (get knocked over) you drop what’s in your hand. Which I found out is very much the case and having an Orbital Strike Target Designator is not the best thing to drop at your own feet. I blew myself up to kingdom come because I tripped. God forbid I ever get drafted, because I will be an absolute liability.
While it might not take place in the Halo universe, it scratches the itch of the type of game I’ve always wanted. I’m very excited to play more Helldivers 2 tonight and try streaming it (plug #2)! Planets need liberating from these monstrosities and I’m going to do my part!
I hope to see you there tonight, but if not, I hope you have a hell of a weekend. We worked hard to get here and now it’s ours to enjoy. I hope you enjoyed the first Double Barrel Blog because I loved writing it. Let’s have a weekend!
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